Athlete News December 18th 2015
Nordic Combined
The 2015/16 season is officially underway! SSWSC’s Nordic Combined program kicked the season off in a big way with their annual Winter Start event this weekend. The event was a 3-fold qualifier. The best junior athletes in the country came to Steamboat Springs to prove themselves worthy of representing Team USA at the 2016 Junior World Championships, Youth Olympic Games, and/or the upcoming Continental Cup event in Park City, Utah. Teams for these events were picked based on the results of Saturday’s events and we’re proud to report that three SSWSC athletes (Koby Vargas, Decker Dean, and Grant Andrews) were chosen to compete in the Continental Cup this weekend! Good Luck Guys!!
We also set a new hill record on the Hill Size 100-meter jump during Saturday’s competition! Casey Larson from Chicago, Ill. Jumped 105.5 meters to crush the old record by 3.5 meters!! Nice one Casey!!
Two of our SSWSC Nordic Combined athletes represented USA in the FIS Continental Cup this weekend! The event was held in Park City, UT and it was a triple-header (both jumping and XC every day for 3 days) so we could rotate the younger athletes and get lots of kids to start at least one of the three comps. Koby Vargas got to start on Friday and Sunday and he placed 32nd and 33rd respectively. Decker Dean got one start on Saturday and finished 38th. Both athletes said they feel that they could’ve performed better, but they’re ultimately just excited about the opportunity to compete alongside some very experienced international skiers.
A few national team members were there too, including SSWSC Alumni Taylor Fletcher, Ben Berend, Jasper Good, and Ben Loomis. Fletcher competed all 3 days and placed 3rd, 2nd, and 1st place on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday respectively. Ben Loomis put on a stellar performance on Saturday with a 4th place finish and Berend’s best result was 6th on Saturday as well. Jasper Good had his best result on Friday with a 13th place.
Freestyle
Saturday Dec. 12:
SSWSC High Performance, (post grad), group stunned the field with a 1, 2, 3, 4 and 7th places. Leading the field was Anna Park, Jaelin Kauf in 2nd, Olivia Giaccio in 3rd, Avital Shimko in 4th and Maggie Ryan in 7th.
This was a warm up event for the US Ski Team Selection event which will take place this week in to the weekend. The top two male and female places will receive World Cup starts in the US Events, (Lake Placid, NY and Deer Valley Utah).
U18 group - Also Zach Rosa had a solid first result of the year finishing 12th overall after a good fall training period and Landon Wendler in 17th for an excellent finish in his young career and a great start to the season. Ben Hoefer and Tallak Myer were 25th and 30th respectively looking to warm up as the season continues.
Sunday Dec. 13:
The SSWSC High Performance Team did not compete and headed home for prep time leading in to US Ski Team Selections.
The U18 boys – Zach Rosa tied for his best result ever with a 5th overall skiing and competing with some former US Team athletes and nipping at their heels…
Landon Wendler finished in 14th overall with a fantastic run and showing progress in his process from day 1 for his best Rocky Mountain Division result of his young career.
Ben Hoefer skied much better to a 16th place – also his best result to this point of his young career and Tallak Myer improved with a great stand up 2nd run in 20th.
Snowboarding
On Saturday at Carezza Italy SRT riders Ester Ledecká and Ekaterina Tudegesheva fished first and third at the first snowboard World Cup PGS of the season. Ester starts the season as the World Cup leader now. On the men’s side Justin Reiter just missed finals with a 18th place, AJ Muss finished 27th, Converse Fields 37th and Robby Burns in 47th. Also on the women’s side was Maggie Rose Carrigan in 39th.
Freeskiing
The SSWSC Freeskiing team Headed to Copper Mountain for it’s first USASA Rocky Mountain Series Halfpipe event of the season. Training day started snowy but gave way to sunny skies for contest day and a halfpipe that was in great condition. The team used the weekend to get their feet back under them. Liam Baxter’s summer work helped him gain some strength which translated to amplitude, and Riley Jacobs took second in the girls 10 - 12 division for the teams highest placing.
Results
Liam Baxter 5th Skier Men 13-15
Riley Jacobs 2nd Skier Girls 10 - 12
Wiley Wagner 6th Skier Boys 10- 12
Cael McCarthy 10th Skier Boys 10 -12
Alpine
U19/21/PG’s
Since coming home from our last race series at Copper, we’ve been plugging away at some slalom training. Obviously if everyone looks outside each morning, you know what we’ve been dealing with…The athletes have been great with keeping up their efforts to keep training about quality and safety, and not so much quantity. We’ve found some good snow surfaces underneath all the fresh snow and the days have been good; but a lot of work and tiring. The group is looking forward to the Holiday Classic races this coming Sunday through Tuesday (Dec 20th-22nd) at Howelsen. Hopefully we’ll get a little weather window and they can use that home hill advantage before we head into our first break of the season. Come on out everyone and cheer us on!!
U16 athletes:
U16 Powder Day